Like any number of crafty veteran baseball pitchers at this time of year, KTRK (Channel 13) anchor Dave Ward is on the mend after undergoing shoulder surgery.

Ward, who has been with Channel 13 since 1966 and has been its primary news anchorman since 1968, was off the air for about three weeks earlier this month while recovering from what he described as perhaps the most painful of the medical procedures he has undergone over the years.

"The cartilage had worn out on my right shoulder, so they put in some kind of plastic cartilage replacement and a rod in the ball joint and sewed me up, and here I am," he said.

Ward is no stranger to medical procedures. He suffered a concussion and a broken pelvis while racing in a charity motorcycle race at the Astrodome in 1974 and in 2003 he broke a leg in an auto accident. In 2012, he underwent surgery to repair a broken hip after he tripped and fell on the station's news set.

Shoulder replacement surgery, however, takes the cake, he said.

"You don't know about pain until you go through this thing," he said. "They told me at Methodist Hospital that shoulder replacement surgery is by far the most painful, and I believe it. It's a killer."

Ward returned last week to anchor the station's 6 p.m. newscasts but is still recovering from a pinched nerve in his neck. He hopes to return to the 10 p.m. newscasts within a week.

As with his other health issues over the years, Ward said viewers noted his absence.

"I got a lot of calls and emails at the station wondering where the hell Ward is," he said. "Like I said on the air when I came back, I've learned that you do pretty good until about age 65 and then you become something of a maintenance problem.

"I've had a little maintenance, but I'm good for another 50,000 miles."

Ward, who will celebrate his 75th birthday in May, is believed to be the nation's longest-tenured newsman at the same station.